ECNL moving to school year part 2
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Anonymous
Yep, all the comments are about misaligned players and parents asking about it and the club saying it's age-based and grade is more of what "most" will be. If anything, this is a example as to why you should leave grade out altogether in order not to confuse people. |
Anonymous
Why do the comments matter? My statement was that clubs are starting to figure out how grade works with SY. |
Anonymous
They should go to that ECNL director's interview. They might learn something like I Hate Soccer Guy did ... The age change is discussed between roughly 14-20 minutes of this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdLkj6MmgIA I Hate Soccer Guy: I get DMs all the time about, well, my daughter's an August birthday, but she's graduating and whatever. And like, what are you doing? Okay, let's say a kid falls on the junior team. … Junior class team, but she's graduating this year with the seniors or whatever. … I know a lot of Flash girls are just going to stay in their grad year. What are you guys going to do? ECNL dude: So we actually we spent a lot of time talking to a lot of the top clubs, a lot of like we talked to players, people in the federation, we talked to people in college like what would be the best thing to do because at some point as well you have to rip the band-aid off. It's like if you keep everything as is, you just push the problem down the road. So for us, every single kid is going to where their birth date aligns. Okay? And that includes like no exceptions. So now if we find a situation now where we need to move a kid because they're just unchallenged, right? Then you can move them from there. Yeah. Right. But let's align it all. We'll rip the band-aid off. Right. And now we can truly see things. And not only that, but you look at like if I'm a if I'm a senior and I have the opportunity to play U17 again, I'm doing it a 100 out of 100 times because there's six playoff spots. There's an environment where you're competing for longer, right? right? You got the opportunity to do things and the motivation level is really high. The senior year always curtails unfortunately. Yeah. Um you know with kids. So you know for me it's a lot of people fall into that and as well you get a great benefit of if you're uncommitted you now get to get a redo on some of the exposure that you know you maybe wouldn't have before if you were on a senior team, right? So there's there's a lot of benefits. So for us, you know, we're in a situation where everyone's going into that and then we can move things off of that if it's the right thing. Now then you also have to look at it. Okay, if a player goes into an age younger but their grade level is here, how do you help them with showcasing? So for us, we have made sure that in our kind of roster assembly, we created opportunities so that you know at ECNL showcases or Jefferson Cup or something like that, we have the ability to bring this player with us. So now they still get the best of both worlds, right? If you can develop inside this environment, we can also then showcase you with your grade level, but also if you're maybe a little bit of a late developer, like for example, your typical recruitment, your elite players are getting watched a lot, their sophomore years. Your next tier is mainly the junior year, but let's say you make it to junior year and you've really developed, but now you're on a mainly sophomore team. You get the opportunity to now get re-seen, right, by a lot of those schools that maybe aren't watching junior classes anymore. I Hate Soccer Guy: I've never thought of it like that. ECNL dude: Yeah. Okay. So, there's a lot of benefits to it. That's a positive of being playing down again. Like another positive because the younger parts of the older grade are typically going to be your late developers, right? So, it gives you the opportunity now to really help them because they, you know, whether it's physical maturation, mental, whatever it might be. It's ultimately up to the kid, but they can showcase because we've had a ton of kids that have come in, you know, and been late developers. They've been on second and third teams and they've risen and they've gone, you know, RL to ECNL to power four, right? And that's, you know, one of our one of our goalkeepers is one of my favorite stories of all time. She's a sophomore at Penn State right now. … So you know, yeah, those late developers are there. And that's the thing is you have to have ways to help them, right? And this kind of provides a natural way. If you are a younger part of your grade, you now have a second opportunity that maybe you wouldn't have got before. |
Anonymous
Nope 100% helpful. The play downers can play the technicality game but it doesnt matter. The club has already told them how the intend to roster Aug birthdays this fall. |
Anonymous
Oh, they matter, especially since the club took time to respond. So, it's almost like a PS ...And what that club learned was it only confuses parents to include it. There's like multiple questions and the club responds saying ... Yeah, actually it's really just age! |
Anonymous
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In the 2026–2027 school year, children born after August 1, 2010, will generally be entering 10th grade (Sophomore year). Depending on their specific birth month and your local district's cutoff date.
Age guy doesnt understand math Proof https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1yAq7D-HKcIoe5A3hpocH9GABvwkEErEVw9tZAIMjpYo/mobilebasic https://www.pausd.org/enrollment/registration/enrollment-process/grade-placement https://iusd.org/sites/default/files/documents/Grade%20Level%20Placement%20for%20ALL%202026-27_0.pdf 
Age guy doesnt understand math 2010s born after 8/1 are most likely to be Sophmores next fall not Juniors. Which is why below is mathematically correct. Age guy doesnt understand math Still 100% correct. Age guy doesnt understand math This is for next fall when SY starts. Age guy doesnt understand math 11v11 = U18/U19 = ≤ 8/1/2007 ≈ Senior 11v11 = U17 = ≤ 8/1/2009 ≈ Junior 11v11 = U16 = ≤ 8/1/2010 ≈ Sophmore 11v11 = U15 = ≤ 8/1/2011 ≈ Freshman 11v11 = U14 = ≤ 8/1/2012 ≈ 8th grade 11v11 = U13 = ≤ 8/1/2013 ≈ 7th grade 9v9/11v11 = U12 = ≤ 8/1/2014 ≈ 6th grade 9v9 = U11 = ≤ 8/1/2015 ≈ 5th grade 9v9 = U10 = ≤ 8/1/2016 ≈ 4th grade 7v7 = U9 = ≤ 8/1/2017 ≈ 3rd grade 7v7 = U8 = ≤ 8/1/2018 ≈ 2nd grade 4v4 = U7 = ≤ 8/1/2019 ≈ 1st grade 4v4 = U6 = ≤ 8/1/2020 ≈ Kindergarten Age guy doesnt understand math Using U14 as an example what this is saying is... Age guy doesnt understand math 1. They play 11v11 2. Players turn 14 after Aug 1 3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2012 4. Players are most likely in 8th grade |
Anonymous
Yep, in the Q&A: Q: This is different than our state’s birthday cut offs for grade. My daughter’s birthday is Aug 19, 2012 and will be in 9th grade next year. According to this post she would be on an 8th grade team A: The grades will apply to most of the kids but not all, so just follow the birthdate timeline as that is what will determine their team! |
Anonymous
Again the club just told parents what they plan to do and how they plan to function. Sure the technicality dorks might be pushing an agenda but it wont matter. 99.9% chance that all Aug birthdays at that club are playing on their correct grade in school team this fall. |
Anonymous
It is odd that everywhere else everyone tells Aug birthdays to play up so they're not misaligned. |
Anonymous
That oversimplifies their responses. You really miss the good advice in there that's my individual and totally echoes what the ECNL guy is saying. For example: Each situation is unique depending on where she would like/be able to play, so only sharing our experience. My son took a gap year since he had the opportunity to play with a much higher level team with more exposure. He graduated with his class, but then spent a year playing with the new team. This led to offers he did not have prior.. I will say that he already had interaction/relationships with coaches prior to the gap year . (Adding that for context and your consideration in this discussion). . He ended up at a school that was more desirable to him and a better fit as a result of that gap year. I would recommend that you do your homework on what her teams exposure to coaches will be by taking the gap year ( beyond more film although that is important too) since coaches need to see her play in person in many cases. It also helps if he will play for a team during that gap year that colleges coaches either have relationships with and/or respect. That made a gap year a good move for my son as exposure and relationships were better with the gap year team. Regarding when they should apply to schools, there are pros and cons to consider. Your daughter should have more “free time” to apply to schools if they are in that gap year since they won’t be knee-deep in senior year classes, but I could also argue that if she doesn’t get in through Soccer, the schools she applies to may want to know what else she was doing during that time off. Her use of time could be seen as a pro or a con depending on how competitive the school is to get into . Another consideration , if for some reason, it seems like the college Soccer journey is not going to continue because of an unexpected injury, etc She could regret not applying to schools with the rest of her classmates. And having to wait a year while she watches them experience freshman year on social media. |
Anonymous
You misread the advice because it's so much more nuanced ... Yes I think you can have her play up a year or at the very least play up for college showcases. Ideally playing up would be best. But remember recruiting is essentially 90% marketing yourself and going to ID clinics and communicating with schools of interest. Most college coaches don’t recruit from league games, high school games but many attend showcases as a way to see as many potential recruits as possible in 1 day. But they typically go to see specific players in mind. So as long as she starts attending college ID clinics and sending emails and clips now the change should not affect her recruiting. I would definitely not delay graduation based on this unless you think she needs another year of development. |
Anonymous
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In the 2026–2027 school year, children born after August 1, 2010, will generally be entering 10th grade (Sophomore year) or 11th grade (Junior year), depending on their specific birth month and your local district's cutoff date.
Grade guy doesn't understand math Proof https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1yAq7D-HKcIoe5A3hpocH9GABvwkEErEVw9tZAIMjpYo/mobilebasic https://www.pausd.org/enrollment/registration/enrollment-process/grade-placement https://iusd.org/sites/default/files/documents/Grade%20Level%20Placement%20for%20ALL%202026-27_0.pdf 
Grade guy doesn't understand math 2010s born after 8/1 are most likely to be Sophmores next fall or Juniors. Which is why below is mathematically correct. Grade guy doesn't understand math Still 100% correct. Grade guy doesn't understand math This is for next fall when SY starts. Grade guy doesn't understand math 11v11 = U18/U19 = ≤ 8/1/2007 ≈ Senior 11v11 = U17 = ≤ 8/1/2009 ≈ Senior 11v11 = U16 = ≤ 8/1/2010 ≈ Junior 11v11 = U15 = ≤ 8/1/2011 ≈ Sophomore 11v11 = U14 = ≤ 8/1/2012 ≈ Freshman 11v11 = U13 = ≤ 8/1/2013 ≈ 8th grade 9v9/11v11 = U12 = ≤ 8/1/2014 ≈ 7th grade 9v9 = U11 = ≤ 8/1/2015 ≈ 6th grade 9v9 = U10 = ≤ 8/1/2016 ≈ 5th grade 7v7 = U9 = ≤ 8/1/2017 ≈ 4th grade 7v7 = U8 = ≤ 8/1/2018 ≈ 3nd grade 4v4 = U7 = ≤ 8/1/2019 ≈ 2nd grade 4v4 = U6 = ≤ 8/1/2020 ≈ 1st 4v4 = U5 = ≤ 8/1/2021 ≈ Kindergarten Grade guy doesn't understand math Using U14 as an example what this is saying is... Grade guy doesn't understand math 1. They play 11v11 2. Players turn 14 after Aug 1 3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2012 4. Players are most likely in 8th grade or Freshman |
Anonymous
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https://www.instagram.com/p/DV_PvkUDSyM/?img_index=4
Looks like we've got another USYS club thats figured out how grade works with SY. |
Anonymous
Mathematically wrong and tells older players that they can play down when they cant. |
Anonymous
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In the 2026–2027 school year, children born after August 1, 2010, will generally be entering 10th grade (Sophomore year). Depending on their specific birth month and your local district's cutoff date.
Age guy doesnt understand math Proof https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1yAq7D-HKcIoe5A3hpocH9GABvwkEErEVw9tZAIMjpYo/mobilebasic https://www.pausd.org/enrollment/registration/enrollment-process/grade-placement https://iusd.org/sites/default/files/documents/Grade%20Level%20Placement%20for%20ALL%202026-27_0.pdf
Age guy doesnt understand math 2010s born after 8/1 are most likely to be Sophmores next fall not Juniors. Which is why below is mathematically correct. Age guy doesnt understand math Still 100% correct. Age guy doesnt understand math This is for next fall when SY starts. Age guy doesnt understand math 11v11 = U18/U19 = ≤ 8/1/2007 ≈ Senior 11v11 = U17 = ≤ 8/1/2009 ≈ Junior 11v11 = U16 = ≤ 8/1/2010 ≈ Sophmore 11v11 = U15 = ≤ 8/1/2011 ≈ Freshman 11v11 = U14 = ≤ 8/1/2012 ≈ 8th grade 11v11 = U13 = ≤ 8/1/2013 ≈ 7th grade 9v9/11v11 = U12 = ≤ 8/1/2014 ≈ 6th grade 9v9 = U11 = ≤ 8/1/2015 ≈ 5th grade 9v9 = U10 = ≤ 8/1/2016 ≈ 4th grade 7v7 = U9 = ≤ 8/1/2017 ≈ 3rd grade 7v7 = U8 = ≤ 8/1/2018 ≈ 2nd grade 4v4 = U7 = ≤ 8/1/2019 ≈ 1st grade 4v4 = U6 = ≤ 8/1/2020 ≈ Kindergarten Age guy doesnt understand math Using U14 as an example what this is saying is... Age guy doesnt understand math 1. They play 11v11 2. Players turn 14 after Aug 1 3. Players are younger than or equal to 8/1/2012 4. Players are most likely in 8th grade |